Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Running Tigers Feed Off One Another
PRAIRIE GROVE TRIO PUSH TEAM TO VICTORIES
PRAIRIE GROVE — Internalizing a self-assessment while battling a challenge during a race seems almost second-nature for a trio of Prairie Grove young distance runners.
A trio of sophomores Kade Mitchell and Francisco Torres-Estrada known as “Frank” for short, and freshman Garrett Wade draw strength from one another — although they are always trying to finish ahead of their teammates.
The trio helped the Tigers stake their claim to sixth place at the State 4A cross country meet held Nov. 3 at Hot Springs. Garrett placed 35th in 19:25.27; Kade came in 38th in 19:29.4; and Frank was 39th in 19:29.6. According to Prairie Grove coach Daren Chandler, this is a pretty common thing in sports with clusters of guys, who run together.
“The biggest challenge (of) most races was trying to not let Frank beat me,” Garrett said. “I don’t know if I went to anybody. I just got more nervous and I tried hard.”
Frank keeps it to himself, but in doing that, admits he tries harder.
“My biggest challenge is trying to beat these two,” Frank said. “Sometimes that happened, most of the time it didn’t. I got to try harder.”
Kade is like his teammates in that he kind of keeps things to himself. His motto for this year was ‘Heat, holes and hills.’
“Those are the three main challenges right there,” Kade said. “Like these two guys, I’m trying to either catch up to them or stay ahead of them. Sometimes you make me want to sprint, like ‘get off my butt.’”
In one race Kade, the most experienced of the group with 4 years distance running, hit a little gutter and gravel slid under his feet.
“I kind of rolled my ankle,” Kade said, explaining he felt pain. “Frank was there. He kind of heard me do it. He was like, ‘C’mon, you can do it.’ He was encouraging me on. Part of me was like I want to stop, but he kept me going. I was able to finish even though he did beat me.”
Frank, also, experienced pain during another race. Nearing the end, during the last mile he was getting a really bad side stitch.
“At that point I thought, ‘I’ve got
to stop, I can’t keep running, but Kade was right beside me,” Frank said. “In that race I really wanted to beat him, so in the middle of our running, I close my eyes for a little while, but not too long, sort of like meditation. During the running I thought to myself, ‘I don’t have a side stitch,’ and it went away. I ended up beating Kade.”
Garrett hasn’t had anything bad happen to him during a race, but physical challenges jumped him the day after the Tigers’ last race at state. Garrett planned to do six miles, but stopped at 5.7 miles after experiencing a hip-flexor. At the time of the interview in mid-November he had been out about two weeks.
“It stinks a lot, not being able to run,” Garrett said.
Anxious to begin basketball season, he found himself relegated to a training bike while biding his time.
“In basketball I still don’t get to play basketball or run,” Garrett said. “I’m just going to have to wait.”
Waiting can be as much of an emotional obstacle as physical issues. Garrett ran a 2-mile course with the junior high team for the first half of the season. Chandler recognized his talent during the May 20 Speedy Skunk run held at Prairie Grove Battlefield Park and had kept an eye on him.
“We were finally able to bring him up to the high school level,” Chandler said. “Within a few weeks of that, that relationship developed. Those three were taking turns winning, they were really just kind of pushing each other, challenging each other. It was a good team dynamic.”